Ladd leads stem cell push at Missouri Cures

I found out Thursday that I have something in common with Dena Ladd, executive director of Missouri Cures: the hope to find a cure for diseases such as diabetes.

I’m new to St. Louis, and new to the health-care beat, and Ladd was on my list of people to meet.

Ladd is devoted to bringing economic development to the state of Missouri (and St. Louis) in a way that may be viewed as unconventional in certain circles. Every day, Ladd is working to create a state that welcomes stem cell research.

By creating a place that invites this type of research, Ladd said, scientists and possible jobs are sure to follow. Even though stem cell research is already under way here in Missouri and St. Louis, Ladd said there could be more. She spends much of her time educating the state’s citizens on exactly what stem cell research means and the medical advances that can come from such research, and an alliance of more than 150,000 individuals, and more than 100 patient, medical and other groups stand behind her nonprofit organization.

Missouri Cures was founded in 2004 as the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, a bipartisan group that supported the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative, a constitutional amendment adopted by voters in November 2006 that ensures any stem cell research and treatments allowed under federal law would also be allowed in Missouri.

Ladd said people from both the political left and right donate to Missouri Cures because stem cell research is personal.

It certainly is for me and my family. My brother is Type 1 diabetic and was diagnosed at the age of 5, when most kids are headed to kindergarten. For my brother it also meant daily insulin shots and pricking his fingers multiple times a day, a tough feat for any mother, father and sister to watch (and administer). Since that time, I’ve watched my brother, who’s only 18 now, bravely manage a chronic disease. For him, and others like him, stem cell research could hold the answer to the cure for diabetes, and other diseases and medical issues.

The education organization will wrap up its 2012 speakers series later this month with Dr. Marie Csete, adjunct faculty, University of California, San Diego, and division director of cell therapies at AABB. She’ll explain the complex issues surrounding stem cell research and the regulatory challenges scientists face when bringing that research to clinical trials. The event, sponsored by Washington University School of Medicine, will be at the Danforth Plant Science Center at 8 a.m. on Oct. 25.

Missouri Cures had total revenue of $927,498 for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2010, according to its most recent IRS filing.